10 | Santa Barbara Family & Life | www.santabarbarafamilylife.com | August 2017
]in the spotlight WHITTIER FIRE
Heroic effort saves campers, staff at Circle V Editor’s Note: This is a first-person
account of a harrowing rescue on July 8, the day the Whittier Fire began near Lake Cachuma. By Ray Ford
Noozhawk Outdoors Writer
W
hen the initial call came in Saturday afternoon that a small fire had started near Camp Whittier, it wasn’t clear how serious the situation was. But within minutes, as the fire continued to spread rapidly uphill and in an easterly direction toward several local youth camps, it quickly transitioned to a life-and-death situation on July 8. I arrived at the entrance to Camp Whittier, which is owned and operated by the United Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County, and another small camp known as Circle V Ranch Camp & Retreat Center at 2:12 p.m. Saturday, just 20 minutes after the fire broke out. The scene was pure chaos. Cars were still Photo by Ray Ford/Noozhawk driving through, engine crews were standing Flames rage near the entrance to the Circle V Ranch Camp & Retreat Center on Saturday, July 8. by awaiting orders, and not too far away, a thundering cloud of smoke and fire was rapid“We started hearing chatter on the radio that ly moving diagonally to the southeast towards appreciation of others. It was holding its holiday week summer kids were trapped up at the Circle V Camp,” the Santa Ynez Mountains. Not more than half a minute after I’d parked camp, from July 5 to 10, when the fire started. Linane said. The camp is less than a mile from Camp The decision was made to send Linane’s near a trailer loaded with a huge D-8 type dozWhittier, and is located near the base of the dozer up to the camp to clear out the road. He er, a car came screaming down the road. Santa Ynez Mountains in a thick covering of turned downhill and began to work his way A young man jumped out, identified himself up the access road to the camp, which was not as a camp counselor and shouted to me, “We got oak trees and light brush. Nearby are a swimmuch wider than his dozer blade. kids trapped up at the camp. At least 20 of them, ming pool and small meadow but little open space to protect them from an approaching fire. He began clearing out the hundreds of bouland the fire is right around where they are.” Unfortunately, it was coming directly at them. ders that had rolled down on the road, along I pointed him to a solitary Santa Barbara After a pleasant morning at the camp, the 80 with a number of sycamore branches, oak trees County Fire crew member standing not too far from me and told him, “He’s got the radio. Let or so kids, counselors and other adults now had a and brush that had fallen onto the road. serious problem: Their escape route out was down When he got to the camp, Linane realized him know that you need help right now.” a mile section of 15-foot wide, twisting dirt road there was barely enough open space outside that would take them through a narrow section of the main building to declare it a safe zone. Heading up the canyon the canyon, most of which was now on fire. At that point I headed up the dirt road he’d “There was about a 50-foot by 50-foot area just come down, hoping to get an idea of how Nor did they have transportation to get that covered by artificial grass and not much else,” bad conditions were. many people out in any case. They had no option he said. Just as I did, a line of four small cars zoomed but to remain at the camp and hope for the best. Though the fire still hadn’t reached the by filled with kids. It turned out later they were camp, the smoke was everywhere. The kids from Camp Whittier and with almost no spot Futile attempt to corral the fire huddled inside a building as the fire grew to shelter in place there, they had made the While Camp Whittier was frantically being closer and closer. decision to get out as fast as they could. Given the road conditions, where any tree evacuated, several engine crews headed to the I continued past the turnoff to Camp Whittier fire front with the intent of trying to secure a could come down and trap them in the middle and cautiously drove up the canyon to the turn- line around the east and south edge of what of the canyon, it was clear the kids, counselors, off to Larsen Meadow, which provided a good had now been dubbed the Whittier Fire. Linane and several engine crews would need view of conditions in the canyon above me. Supporting the engine crews was dozer oper- to shelter in place as best they could. At the top of the meadow one outbuilding Fortunately, at the point when conditions ator Mark Linane, who was tasked with cutting was fully engulfed in flames and another a line up the ridge east of the camp so the crews were getting extreme, air support in the form threatened. From my viewpoint, it looked like could follow, laying a hose to cool things down. of retardant drops cooled down the perimeter everything in the upper canyon was on fire. “We worked frantically to make that happen,” and provided a measure of safety — but there Just then a propane tank blew up, not too far County Deputy Fire Marshall Robby Hazard told was no guarantee that would not change. away, a signal that it was time for me to get out. me. “But it was just moving too fast.” Despite the severity of the situation and the In less than an hour, it would be threatening need to evacuate, that would be impossible Circle V campers, counselors in danger until the fire passed through the lower canyon. the Circle V area. Circle V advertises itself as a camp and As it turned out, the next hour and a half retreat center for youth and is committed to the may have been the longest any of the kids had Kids trapped in place growth and development of children through ever spent in their lives. By 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Circle V was covpositive, meaningful and rewarding activities Search and Rescue team responds ered in smoke and the first flames were nearing such as hiking, swimming and immersion It had already been a long day for the Santa the camp perimeter. The situation was turning in the natural world to build self-esteem and Barbara County Search and Rescue Team. extremely serious.
Photo by Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team Circle V campers were evacuated and taken to Mission Santa Inés.
Many of the team members had spent the previous night evacuating people from the Tepusquet Road area for the Alamo Fire. While on the way home, they got the call to assist with possible evacuations of homes in the Paradise Road and Painted Cave Road area off Highway 154. But within minutes, they were diverted back to the Whittier Fire perimeter, staging at the entrance to Live Oak Camp, awaiting for conditions to get right before heading up to the Circle V area. “The big question was how to get that many kids out of there,” SAR lead Nelson Trichler explained to me. A caravan of Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team vehicles evacuates campers and staff from Circle V Saturday afternoon. Click to view larger A caravan of Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team vehicles evacuates campers and staff from Circle V Saturday afternoon. (Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team photo) “The original goal was to have two large Chumash vans head up there, but that wasn’t practical given their size, so we decided that we should take our vehicles up and bring the kids down, even if that meant taking several trips.” With several team trucks that included passenger vans and 4x4 SUVs, the SAR team members started to work their way up the road to the Circle V camp. “About halfway up to the camp, a burnedout tree came down right in front of the van I was driving,” Trichler said. “That separated us from two of our vehicles that had just driven through a minute before. We were able to squeeze one more vehicle around it so they could head up to the camp.” The rest of the SAR team was tasked with clearing out the branches blocking the road. Grabbing handsaws, a chainsaw and a battery-operated sisal, they got most of it off to the side of the road and were able to continue on. A quarter-mile later they came across a second tree that they had to cut out of the way before proceeding any further. “Finally we got to the camp,” Trichler added. “We passed by one outbuilding that had flames licking up the side of it, which kind RESCUE CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
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